Digital Navy - USS Arizona - 1/100

[eibwarrior]

Up on deck!

Finally to the decks. This wasn't bad either. They came out easy enough, laminated well, and attached like a dream. Fit up was perfect. No tweaks or modifications required. pretty scary.

Here's some shots of how it went down. Starting to look really good now. I'm getting excited. See if you can find the scale cube. It's in the shots, I promise. :thumb:

 

[Teamski]

Sweet deck action! Looking excellent!

-Ski

 

[Lex]

What a huge size... You're sure you didn't scale the scale cube...? ^^

 

[dansls1]

Looking great - this is an impressive build, and not just due to the size

 

[barry]

Nice fitting there

 

[eibwarrior]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

I'm applying the hull plating above the water line right now. This is presenting some unforseen challenges. I should have some shots up in the next couple days.

 

[eibwarrior]

More hull plating

Now I'm well into the hull plating above the water line. The fitup thus far has yet again been good. I could really get spoiled by the quality of the DN fitup. Even the curved sections with the recessed portals went together well.

One thing I have noticed since starting this part of the build... The small horizontal sections which step out from the hull sides were part of the black & white parts (formers). I'm not sure if there are some more parts in the color (blue/gray) sheets which cover over these or not. I will have to do something to make this transition from vertical hull plating to horizontal hull plating. If I can't find any parts in the sheets, I may have to do some scratch built ones. At last, a bit of a challenge.

I finally picked up a 36" x 10" wall shelf at Lowe's last night. The Arizona barely! fits on it. No pictures on the floor from now on. I have it up on the wall now.

 

[Teamski]

There definately should be a strip that fills in that area, at least that's what the Digital Navy's one shows.... You should have no problem fabricating one if you still can't find it....

-Ski

 

[Gregory Shoda]

eibwarrior:

You are doing great! Your deck looks very good. It is amazing that you have been able to build such a large model by magnifying the original model.

 

[eibwarrior]

Thanks Gregory. Yes, its surprising, but the fit up has been very smooth in going from 1/250 to 1/100. Things have went together really well.

Sorry for no updates in a while. Work has slowed of late. But I'm still making some progress. The first phase of hull plating above the water line is complete. Now the lower layer, which doesn't have recessed areas is all that is left. This should go much faster since there are only eight parts total to apply.

I'm a bit displeased with the bow. It doesn't show well in these photos, but I either botched it or, it looks just too flat to me. I might add an additional piece, hand formed to give the point of the bow a more accurate tip. As it is now, it's just way too flat. That's a tough shape to form with to pieces coming together. Here's some shots of the progress.

After the bottom half is complete, the DN kit comes with an array of small pieces and parts that enhance the details on the above waterline hull. I'm going full throttle on this model, so no short cuts. I'll probably get bogged down in that for a while.

 

[eibwarrior]

Hull plating completed...

Well, I've put all the detail (for now) that I'm going to put on the hull plating. I still have to address the horizontal plane of the hull recesses. I'm waiting to do that later during some idle time.

Right now, the task at hand is to get started on the shelter deck and casemate guns. Here are some recent photos of my progress...

This first picture shows the completed hull plating and overall look of the ship right now. I like to call this one "Alamo over the Arizona" :mrgreen:

Some shots of the laminated casemates and associated tabs

A pair of shots of the start of casemate installation. The tabs were quite easy. The back wall of this deck was easy as well and is really only there to give you background when looking into the open casemate gun portals. I'm sectioning this casemate exterior wall. It came in one piece, but I doubt I could pull off all the bends and rolls in one complete piece, thus I will section it in about three or four pieces.

 

[NYC Irish]

great

Looking great, Great testimony to an amazingly well dsigned kit, still looks great at that amount of enlargement

John John

 

[chapuzas100]

I have spent a lot of time following your progress, I have never said anything because my English is very bad, but today I do not bear, your work is fantastic .......... but now begins work harder.

 

[nibel]

What a huge monster!

 

[barry]

looks more impressive each posting

 

[eibwarrior]

Thanks guys...

John John... Yes, I was quite surprised at the print clarity going up 250%. It's going to look great finished.

chapuzas100... Thanks for the kind comments. I'm glad you took the time to respond. Yes, the work will get much more complicated now. These 5" deck guns for the shelter deck will be my first detailed assemblies.

Nibel and Barry... Thanks for checking in. If it looks overwhelming in the pictures, magnify that feeling times 10 in the flesh! It reminds me in scale of museum models. I've always wanted to build one this size. If storage space weren't an issue, I'd build all my ships this size.

 

[Hank45]

Do you laminate the deck portions? Thanks Hank45

 

[eibwarrior]

Hank45. Thanks for the question, a good one. Here's what I do...

All pieces are printed on high quality matte finish paper, about 40# bond. I laminate virtually everything with the exception of rolled shapes. The superstructure of the hull (formers) were laminated to 2 mm cardstock, the decks were laminated to 1 mm cardstock, and the hull plating and bulkheads have all been laminated to 110# cardstock to this point.

 

[Hank45]

What do I do with red lines and circles? Are they cut out? How do I work with them? They are on the floor of the casement decking. Thanks Hank45 PS I am new to this type of modeling.

 

[eibwarrior]

With Digital Navy models, the red circles are cut outs (voids) in the specific part. Like the large red circles on the main deck. On the hull plating the holes for the anchors in the bow are red ovals, etc.

I use hobby knives with sharp new blades for cutouts in my lighter stock. The heavier stuff like 1 mm and 2 mm requires heavier tools. I've used box cutters with some success.